Man… I love Bioware sometimes. And the light/dark side choices are just a whole lot of fun! Especially if you plan to level alts. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a Jedi or Sith, you can be good or bad.
Now, I could go on and on about the use of this in SWTOR, but instead, I think I’m going to comment a bit on our galactic dual party system. So, we have the Empire and Republic… needless to say, I chose to serve the Empire, and one would think you’d be doing all kinds of nasty. But I was a bit surprised to find that they balanced the good/evil thing quite a bit. What I mean is, from the Empire’s side, the Republic are a the bad guys.
From my perspective, both a lightside Bounty Hunter and Sith Sorcerer, the Jedi are seen as completely unreasonable and boarder-lined genocidal. Every time I’ve run into a Jedi, they made it a point to explain how we Sith are the scourge of the universe and that it was the Jedi’s duty to eradicate them from existence. Also, from the dialog choices I’ve made, my story unfolded to be someone who was trying to save the Empire and spread peace throughout the galaxy. So come on, it’s not that bad right??
Ok, just a littttle bad… But here’s my thing with the Empire vs. Republic… When you look at both of them objectively, you see that the Empire is split up into 2 groups; the troops and staff (not including the Imperial Agents… they’re just crazy evil) and then the ruling bodies, the Sith. From my experiences with them, it seems like the troops are always having to fix the problems of the Sith, because they just walk around like they own the joint; killing and maiming and whatnot. So as you can see, they have some obvious issues with anger. I like to imagine that those without the force seem to just be biding their time until they can over take the Sith, seeings how they’re self destructive nature will just get everyone in trouble. Anyways, average the two groups out and you still have an overwhelming desire to conquer, assimilate, and control, all through less than diplomatic means.
On the other side is the Republic. Now, all the documentaries try to tell you they’re the victims and are the only ones who can stop that big bad Empire from taking over the universe… Yeah, ok, but lets look at them a bit closer shall we? The Jedi have MASSIVE superiority complexes! They repress emotion and claim to follow only the path of “good”, but to what end? Actually, they remind me of the old Crusaders; killing, pillaging, and converting people to “their” way of thinking all in the name of doing good. Just a little too righteous sounding to me. And look at all of my interactions with them so far. I’ve done nothing but try to be peaceful and not get into a fight, but they all have insisted that because I’m Sith, I must die. Yeah… that’s messed up. Killing off a people they find to be “evil” without exception or questions asked. And don’t get me started on how corrupt the actual Republic is… My fav incident was that they were setting up to secretly invade an entire planet (Balmora I think…) and was being set in works for the past few decades! An absolute breach of peace treaties and all that junk!! Evil!
So… The reason why I like the Empire is because they’re direct. They know they’re pretty darn bad and they act accordingly. The Imperials don’t try to hide the fact that they are after power and control. But that’s the difference there, because the Republic are in it for all the same things while under the guise of superiority and righteousness… and that there is why I like the Empire! The devil you know kinda thing. I’d rather follow the guys that know who they are and act accordingly then those who try to hide their true nature under false pretense. That and cause lightning powers are just more cool. >)
As for lightside and darkside… I’ve never liked the dichotomy. It’s like Yin and Yang, one extreme or the other is bad, but true good lies within the balance. I guess that is the same with the force; denying balance causes nothing but destruction. From what I can see, based on all this craziness going on in the SW universe, it seems that nothing goes well when you split the force into extremes. But I guess that’s what Vader was all about, right? Bringing balance to the light and dark? Something like that…
Anywho… think I’ll have 2 polls this time! >D
I personaly like the republic, but being the bad guy for the empire you are loyal tp the sith, so either way no matter what class you are THE SITH ARE EVIL , but as a jedi your a monk (you notice the sith can dk what they like and are more funny like….. “arn’t you a good little soilger!, and “yes till im bloated!”)
yeah, the sith are kind of jerks… least, all the ones I’ve run into. actually, scratch that, there were a few you meet in some specific quests that were actually reasonable (one in the inq. line and the other on DK I think), but they were all ancient and stuff. I think the empire wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t have the sith hovering over them all the time.
as for the jedi, ideally they’re monkish, but for the most part, all the jedi you meet are genocidal zealots. now, I haven’t played from the jedi point of view, and will probably do so in the future, but man, from the empire side, the republic come off as totally evil nutjobs!
Smuggler has the some points where i ROLFMAO, and kinda that i a merc and unlike most says that “im a big hero reward me’” over all its fun its cleaver and really enjoyable so smuggler might be good if you wanna see republic
yeah, I’m thinking I just might! Merc was a blast so maybe smug might be too!
They’ve been planning an all out assault for decades? I’d think twice before choosing The Rebels now.. Sabotage the Empire just to create another Arcturus Mengsk? No thanks!
yeah, I forget the exact number of years, but it was clear that they were very much in the wrong.
I don’t know… I’ve been playing the Republic side, and it’s pretty clear that the Empire isn’t all roses and butterflies. Even as a grey jedi (which is super fun), I’ve had far more of an issue with the Sith than the Jedi. I mean, you say the Jedi have superiority complexes… but the Sith don’t? Silly, silly! Anyway, I encourage you to try playing through the Republic side through once. I just got to the point at the beginning of chapter 3 where the Empire began its all-out assault on the Republic, thus destroying what was left of the treaty. So… eh. I’ve played some Imperial stuff and I honestly think both sides have their “issues”.
I should also add that I’ve played through Balmorra from both sides… and I going to have to side with the Republic in this. They only took their support from Balmorra because the Sith invaded Coruscant and forced them to. So, the Sith came in and took over. Sure, the Republic sent money to the freedom fighters, but when the Republic came back to liberate Balmorra, they found the Empire murdering innocents and killing people left and right. The reason the Balmorrans distrust the Republic not because they have come in to shake things up with the Empire, but because they abandoned Balmorra in the first place.
As a Jedi Consular, my class quest in Ch 2 (when we go to Balmora) was to work with a group of diplomats threatening to break away from the Republic. One of them was the last surviving governmental official of Balmora who officially asked for my help in liberating his planet. *shrugs* So, yeah, I went in and kicked the Imperials out, slaughtering numerous sith in the meantime and making my friend the new President, but I wasn’t the sith who slaughtered 100 innocent Balmorans just to draw out the Jedi. So… like I said. You gotta take the time to see both sides.
ha, yeah we’re total jerks. but if it helps, I’ve been trying to do good things while working for them. >)
I guess I need to play some of the rep side to see how the stories match up. but I think they did a good job of making the other side really seem in the wrong… just like how wars are in real life.
Might make a smug, since the cons. is probably too close to my mage.
I haven’t played ToR yet, but the same dichotomy pretty much exists in just about every game set with 2 or more opposing factions. I’ve played characters on both Horde and Alliance, and on both sides, the other side is painted as evil (or corrupt/misguided/weak). I do agree, though, that it is nice to see some bits of inter-person struggle with a character on a specific side (i.e. Sith with a decency streak, or a Jedi with a raging personality flaw).
very true. I kinda like the balance of jerkery with two sided systems.
there was actually a game back in the day, think it was released by the ARMY or something, anyways, it was a shooter that from your perspective everyone on your team was ALWAYS american and the opposite was ALWAYS arabs or some other non pc group. sort of the extreme of “the other team is the bad guy” approach. >)
Hey, wait, Imperial Agents are nasty!? I take offense to that! I’m a Light Side Imperial Agent, and I fight against Sith Cruelty all the time! Even if I have to take some lightening to the balls for my insolence. And everywhere I turn there is always a Sith trying to use me for their own gains, while maintaining that I’m “beneath” them because I’m not a Sith.
y’all er evils and ya know it! >)
actually, I’ve been playing darkside so I guess that might have something to do with it. one thing I’ve done though is make sure to talk back to all the siths… I think they killed me once for that though, lol. man, those sith are real a*holes! they’re so full of themselves! well, except my mage, but he’s all lightside and junk.
I like playing IA, and its alot like being the secret police. Its not evil like you said, and much nicer then the sith. We also often get lightside choices which will actually “benefit the mission” and darkside which screw the mission over. I think only sith dont have a reason not to be the side they want to be, because they become weaker for it.
heh, it must be cause I’ve been darkside cause man my IA does some !@#$ moves! lol! but it seems like they get into some real sticky situations. I do like having “neither side” options cause the DS keeps making me kill cute ladies and I’d rather not.
You cannot judge both sides that easily , really. I played both sides with 10 Characters ( 1 50 lvl JK and 50 LvL Bounty Hunter , the rest is +25 for now ) and both side have Extremists on their mists.
Empire known to be Ruthless and arrogant, while Republic seems kinda incompetant and corrupt ( like the current government of US ! *Badumtiss * Ok maybe not that bad :D ). The thing is you cannot really steriotype the groups like Sith and Jedi because in each class story, I saw a different side of them.
As a Jedi Knight, I was trying to stop the crazy Sith Lords using Doomsday weapons that can destroy planets and of course The Sith Emperor ( no spoilers… you got to play the game for it :) ) which showed that Empire is ruled by a lot of maniacs what would cause incredible harm. But there were also level headed ones that I respected.
From the Empire Stand point, Jedi never seemed that evil to me really. Sure they are righteous towards the Sith because lets face it, you cannot trust Sith even if you ARE a SITH too. It is the nature of betrayal that cause these problems. In an Evil scale, Empire is way upper than the Republic. The ”Evil” of the Republic is mostly behind doors as a political schemes ( which I hate ) but I wouldn’t throw Republic away only to get Sith Overlords…
Thats why I enjoy Smuggler and Bounty Hunter the most in the game…they are independent, couldn’t care less about both side’s politics and can be an Asshole or with a heart of gold. If I were to suggest about classes to Bioware, I would’ve said
” Make Trooper,Agent,Bounty Hunter and Smuggler neutral classes soo they can choose which side they can go after their origin planet. ”
It may contradict with some systems in the game but it can really fit the story I think. These classes have a lot of potential to them to be get bullied by force users really. Thats my opinion anyways.
good account man! I know it’s difficult to pin a bad guy here, especially from playing just one side. though I get what you mean about sith… I think the empire would be way different if they didn’t have the whole sith problem to think about.
but yeah, like I said, I like the empire mostly cause they’re direct with their sinister ways, rather than plotting and scheming behind closed doors.
I know it’s been ages since this strip has been published, but just in case you happen to read this… From what i read of your comments on the empire i thought you might find interesting to know that in the Expanded Universe there is a period when a sith-less Empire exists. And they’re actually pretty nice, having official organizations of charity work and making their force user group, the Imperial Knights, stay away from the dark side.